[jo40]

Hello
I feel so bad this morning, I am almost positive that one of my chicks (10wks) has Mareks. She can hardly walk, legs splayed and her feet are curled. I have separated her from the others, my 10 year old is 'chicken nurse' offering food and water regularly and from what I have read I will just have to wait and see if she recovers.
1)Besides disinfecting house/feeders etc is there anything else I can do?
2)They range in an area of 150sq meters, is there something I should do to the ground?
3)If she does recover and the others show no signs can I re-introduce her or would the sensible thing be to cull her to protect the rest of my birds? They are pure breeds and not vaccinated.
Thanks Jo

[Roughlee Handled]

I hope this will help
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=22657.msg270149#msg270149

[jo40]

Thank you for that,
I think I have my answer
Luckily the chicks still sleep separately from others, I have disinfected their house and feeders, I will keep them completely separate for now.
1)How long would it take for them to develop symptoms?
2)And how did the chick get it, wild birds or carrier, is it likely the other chicks will also be infected anyway?
I feel so bad, this is my first attempt at rearing chicks, I thought I was doing so well to not lose any
Jo     

[Roughlee Handled]

.............
1)How long would it take for them to develop symptoms?
2)And how did the chick get it, wild birds or carrier, is it likely the other chicks will also be infected anyway?.............

Sorry cant help there.  Just be clean and try not to spread from on the other other.

[jo40]

I disinfect with  Virkon every 6 weeks, use poultry shield the rest of the time (it says it has sanitizer in it). Should I be disinfecting more often?
I change the chicks shavings every other day as they sleep on the floor, its a rubbish cheap little ark I got from ebay but will have to do for now.
Thanks again Jo

[Aunt Sally]

If the chick recovers it will remain infected for a very long tome and can pass the virus on to other birds, whether vaccinated or not.  She will also be more prone to other diseases as well.  

It is a very common disease and can only be avoided by very strict bio-security measures.  Commercial birds are vaccinated at a day old but this only controls the effects of the virus rather than preventing infection.

Wild birds don't carry it and it was probably carried from other chicken carriers.  You will just have to wait and see if the other chicks are infected I'm afraid, it could show up quickly or remain dormant for a long time  

Your scrupulous hygiene measures will help a lot !

[jo40]

Thank u for that, it is very helpful.
It makes sense now as I have been allowing the chicks into the main area for 'supervised' integration each day for a couple of hours. I guess one or more of my older hens are carriers. I feel a little better as all the older ones have been together for a while with no problems.
I will keep the chicks separate for now. The infected bird is in the quarantine coop, my instincts say cull her to protect the other chicks, would like to hear opinions on this, is it the sensible thing?
Can I assume my older birds have a reasonable immunity as they have all been well, is it just the chicks I need to be concerned with?
Im hoping OH gets home before dark so we can move houses/fencing to new ground, will this also help?
Jo   

[Aunt Sally]

I think culling the infected chick is the right choice 

[jo40]

Thank you
I am not brave enough, will wait for OH to do the deed 
Jo

[grumpydad]

have been mere myself, we bought 6 birds, all apperently vaccinated, 1 developed mareks, and died, she was riddled with tumours, 2 others then died from other diseases. mareks will suppress a chickens immune system, which will leave it vulnerable to lots of other diseases, that they would generally be able to cope with. all of mine were given antibiotics, not to get rid of mareks, as this is a visus that antibiotice cant help with, but to help with the other infections which can kill when the immune is suppressed.

we were left with 2 healthy birds, and 1 poorly bird, which with the antibiotics is now as fit as she will ever be, she is a bit smaller than normal, but apart from that full of life.

my advice would be to, cull the infected one, get antibiotics from the vet to help with secondary infections. isolate the poorly ones
keep the run and coop clean, virkons and stanoslan f, both of which will help kill bacterial virus, and cocci, which can both kill a poorly chuck.

i use a 500ml spray bottle with virkon s, clean the poop from the coop every day, and give a quick spray over the shavings.
dust with stanoslan f.

good luck.

[Foxy]

Hi Jo, sorry to hear about your chick. It may not be Mareks,some things to consider.
Are you able to contact the supplier where you got your original flock to enquire whether they have had an outbreak that could have resulted in any of your older birds being survivors or carriers. Any infections or non-thriftyness in your original flock?
Also, how old were your chicks when you bought them?
Any chance of an injury through bullying on their "meet and greet" sessions? Any evidence of swelling, heat (or cold) on the chicks legs?
Sorry for all the questions! Sometimes it is worth exploring other possibilties

[jo40]

Thanks for replies,
We went through other possibilities but unfortunately couldn't be sure, I was hoping it would be a repairable injury but nothing suggested anything was broken or dislocated. We gave it 24 hours but couldn't bear to watch her struggling so much, kept falling over herself and landing on her head
Unfortunately we don't have a good chicken vet locally so phoning around didn't really tell me anything I hadn't already surmised ( I get better knowledge and advice from here).
Whatever was wrong with her she is no longer suffering
Jo

[grumpydad]

sorry it had to end that way. i know how you feel.

all you can do is learn, and go on, mine are now poop scooped daily, and the shaving sprayed every other day with virkon s to keep any bacteria the chooks may have down.

dont give up